The Most Sympathetic Character in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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The Most Sympathetic Character in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Frankenstein was written in 1816 by Mary Shelley when she was eighteen

years old. Her early life mirrored some of the main parts of the

story. For example Victor Frankenstein's mother died when he was

seventeen of scarlet fever and Mary Shelley's mother died in

childbirth. This shows a correlation between their pasts as both of

their mothers died when they were quite young Mary Shelley's father's

second wife discarded her and this is reminiscent of Victor and the

creature. Frankenstein is a Gothic novel and the Gothic style was very

popular at the time. The elements of a Gothic novel are, it is set at

night time and there are a lot of superstitious activities. Themes

related to Gothic novels include, the supernatural, mystery, horror,

surprise, anger, an extreme use of emotions and dreams or visions. The

Greek myth of Prometheus is reflected in Victor Frankenstein's

character. Prometheus gave fire to humans without the god's

permission. He was punished by having his liver eaten each day by a

bird. This relates to Victor Frankenstein because he created life

against god's wishes. Victor is punished by losing his wife, his

brother and ultimately himself to the monster.

In chapter one Victor Frankenstein is introduced to the reader. He was

born into an upper class family. He appears to be rather egotistical

and felt that he had the right to the best of everything. Examples of

this are, "I am by birth Genevese and my family is one of the most

distinguished of that republic", and, "I was their plaything and their

idol." This shows that he believed he was more important than his...

... middle of paper ...

... but kind-hearted

expressions towards Victor.

I feel most sympathetic to Victor overall after reading the whole

story because he tried to help people all the time and the entire

experiment was formed so that he could bring people back to life so

that they could enjoy more time with their loved ones. However, when

the creature was first created I felt sorry for the creature because

it was discarded by Victor before it had a chance to express itself

and it was totally rejected by mankind. Every person that the creature

met alienated him even though he attempted to befriend them. I thought

that this was very cruel but it did not give the creature the excuse

to murder Frankenstein's family. This was an act of rage and revenge

which caused me to completely change my mind about feeling sympathetic

towards the creature.

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